U.S. Behind Romania in Latest Press-Freedom Report

The 2014 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index places the U.S. at 46th out of 180 nations.

Conor Friedersdorf: “Countries that scored better include Romania, South Africa, Ghana, Cyprus, and Botswana. And 40 others. Put simply, it’s an embarrassing result for the country that conceived the First Amendment almost 240 years ago.”

The report: “The heritage of the 1776 constitution was shaken to its foundations during George W. Bush’s two terms as president by the way journalists were harassed and even imprisoned for refusing to reveal their sources or surrender their files to federal judicial officials. There has been little improvement in practice under Barack Obama.”

Friedersdorf: “Take it from Lee Greenwood. ‘I’m proud to be an American because at least I know I’m freer than 47th-ranked Haiti’ just doesn’t have the same exceptionalist ring to it.”

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I wonder how embarrassed we’d be by our media if we saw them ranked against that of other nations. CNN, Fox, et al. are sensationalist amateur clubs, network news consists mostly of baby boomer artifacts whining about rap music, big print media (looking at you, AP) is flailing wildly in a death spiral and hasn’t possessed a modicum of integrity since the 90s, regional newspapers push the corporate interests of their ownership, and the various digital outlets are too often the work of narcissists more concerned with getting clicks than being professional (BuzzFeed). They have stood by for years if not decades while lies are peddled day in and day out, and the real atrocities go unreported. They are lazy, insulated and mostly incompetent.

That leaves us NPR and PBS, and the few names like Brian Williams, Rachel Maddow and Jim Lehrer who aren’t completely cringe-worthy. Let’s be real: the media has insisted on acting like children and are being treated as such.